Hello, everyone. We've just arrived back in Bali after spending 25 days aboard the Damai II. We left port out of Maumere on October 26 and spent half our time in and around Alor, and half our time in Komodo. 87 dives later, our group of 9 probably has one of the most incredible—and diverse—collections of underwater pictures ever taken on a single trip! I have a long slideshow that I will post as soon as I arrive at a connection that can handle a multiple-gigabyte upload. Until then, the trip guests will likely be posting pictures here on this thread. Enjoy!

Everyone seems to have left today, but I have an extra day here to work on pics and add to the thread. It was an absolutely fantastic trip! The new Damai boat is ridiculously spacious and luxurious - my single cabin was approx 12' x 18' and I could practically lie down in the shower under the 8" "rain" shower head. The boat's new, so we did have some mechanical problems - we lost a/c for a couple days necessitating a change in our diving itinerary and some cabin lights would occasionally go disco when they worked on the generators. All of which will no doubt be ironed out in time. Mostly, it was almost a month of great diving on a great boat with a great crew, great food and most of all, great company!

Lots of milestones for me on this trip: First time shooting supermacro - the guides were AMAZING, finding stuff I could barely see with my eyes. I had to look through the viewfinder to see what they were pointing out! First time seeing lots and lots of the critters, like boxer crabs, the amphipods (fleas!), and esp the well over 100 different nudi's. First time using Lightroom. And I passed 1000 dives while there

So here are a few more from the trip (in addition to Eric's forthcoming slideshow extravaganza)

We saw 18 (yes, 18!) different Rhinopias (Rhinopiai?) around Alor

A couple of the aforementioned 100+ nudi's - you'll have to watch the slideshow to see the rest!

One of the many "undescribed" critters we saw

We dubbed these amphipods fleas - they're about that big (BTW, pic is barely cropped )

Just in case you thought it was all macro

Thanks to all who made the trip a once-in-a-lifetime experience, the Damai crew, guides, our rock-and-roll Cruise Director, Garry Bevan and his signature maneuver (again, you'll have to watch the slide show) and especially to our illustrious trip leader!

Phil

Phil Sokol
Canon 5D3 and 7D, Nauticam and Subal, an assortment of strobes and too many damn lenses!
"Hey Dean! How do you work this crazy thing?!" Jerry Lewis

the navy has always stopped me from diving in Maumere harbour.. one of my guides got arrested once hahaha... (when he worked on another boat) The navy guys are kinda touchy about it. So you guys are lucky to have dove there at all

the navy has always stopped me from diving in Maumere harbour.. one of my guides got arrested once hahaha... (when he worked on another boat) The navy guys are kinda touchy about it. So you guys are lucky to have dove there at all

Botak: nice collection

Did anyone convince Gaza to cut his hair?

I almost cut it, but then I couldn't have named the nudi I found on the last the day the Hairy Garry. It does resemble him, no? So, I'm glad I didn't give it the chop.